News

Miley Cyrus twerks her way to Billboard No. 1

SMILEY MILEY: The singer's latest album "Bangerz" is on top of the Billboard charts. Photo: Associated Press

By Piya Sinha-Roy

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Pop singer Miley Cyrus twerked her way to the top spot of the weekly Billboard 200 album chart, notching her fourth chart-topping record.

“Bangerz,” which features Cyrus experimenting with hip hop, dance and R&B influences, sold 270,000 copies in its first week, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan.

Former Disney star Cyrus, 20, has captured headlines with a series of scantily clad, raunchy performances that began with the MTV Video Music Awards last month, where she showed off some provocative dance moves, known as “twerking.”

In the video for her latest song “Wrecking Ball,” the second single from “Bangerz,” Cyrus is seen naked and swinging from a giant wrecking ball and provocatively licking a sledgehammer.

“Bangerz” leads seven new debut records in the top 10 of this week’s Billboard 200 chart.

Alt-pop group Panic! At the Disco landed at No. 2 with its latest album “Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die!” selling 84,000 copies.

Rapper Pusha T entered the chart at No. 4 with his latest set “My Name is My Name.”

The latest compilation of songs from Fox musical TV series “Glee” came in at No. 7 this week, featuring tracks sung by the cast for last week’s memorial episode “The Quarterback,” dedicated to deceased cast member Cory Monteith and his character Finn Hudson. The episode pulled in 7.4 million viewers according to Fox, the highest ratings for the show in over a year.

Other new debuts in the top 10 include metal rock band Korn at No. 8 with “The Paradigm Shift,” “The Voice” winner Cassadee Pope at No. 9 with “Frame by Frame,” and rockers Mayday Parade at No. 10 with “Monsters in the Closet.”

On the Digital Songs chart, New Zealand singer Lorde continued her reign at No. 1 with her breakthrough single “Royals,” while Katy Perry’s “Roar” remained steady at No. 2 and Avicii’s dance track “Wake Me Up!” climbed one spot to No. 3.

Overall, album sales for the week ending October 13 totaled 4.8 million, down 6 percent from the comparable week in 2012, according to Billboard.

Singer Justin Timberlake’s “The 20/20 Experience” released in March, leads the top-selling albums of the year, with 2.3 million copies sold in the United States to date.